Document transporting devices are devices for transporting a plurality of document sheets from a document tray where the sheets are stacked, to a document reading area where the sheets are sequentially read. Such document transporting devices are widely used in document reading devices and image forming apparatuses. Document sheets are transported from the document tray to the document reading area through a document transport path that is formed so as to lead from the document tray to a platen. In the event of a document sheet being jammed in the document transport path, the jammed sheet is conventionally removed either by opening a top cover of the apparatus, which serves as an upper portion of the path, in order to expose the path, or by pulling a leading end of the sheet as held by registration rollers.
A shape of the path disposed in a document cover may sometimes cause difficulty in removing a sheet jammed in the path. Some recent document transporting devices have a transversely U-shaped document transport path. The shape allows the path to have an appropriate length for transporting a document sheet and, at the same time, to feed a document sheet to a platen in a position as horizontal as possible. The shape also contributes to downsizing of document transporting devices. As can be expected from the shape, the path has a two-tier construction and is divided into an upper portion, a curved portion, and a lower portion. Thus, there is difficulty in removing a document sheet jammed in the lower portion, even when a top cover of the document transporting device is opened.
To deal with the foregoing problem, there has been proposed automatic document feeding devices in which a document holder, which holds an original document as placed on the document platen so that the document will not move, is adapted to pivot around a pivot axis that is disposed parallel to a document transport direction, in order to expose a portion of a document transport path positioned immediately above the document holder (see Patent Literature 1).
Patent Literature 1: JP H11-5659 A